Just one glance at a map of Second Life and you can see why I created Terra Stingray. SL is almost all water, and most of the new continents coming online have great places for marine vehicles.

Stingray is the one vehicle you need to explore air and sea. As a plane, it can take off from land or water. As a boat, it can cruise the seas at high speed. As a sub, it can slip through the murky depths. This help notecard will get you into the pilot’s seat.

In these notes…

Starting out
Flight controls
Choosing a flight model
Monitoring fuel use
Configuring your aircraft
Command list
Painting your aircraft
Applying custom Textures

Starting Out

Drag the Terra Stingray from your Inventory to the ground, then right-click it and choose “Get In”.
To choose get the heads-up display (HUD), say MENU in chat and click “Get HUD”.
Say START to start the engine.
Press Page Up to increase throttle to at least 70%.
Accelerate to flight speed and pull back on the stick (down arrow). Use flight controls to avoid solid objects and the ground.
Reduce throttle to about 60% for cruising (remember… it’s a fast plane).

Flight Controls

Use the keyboard to control your Stingray:

Page Up/Page Down – Throttle up/down.
Up arrow – Push foward on the stick (nose down).
Down arrow – Pull back on the stick (nose up).
Left/right arrows – turn left/right.
Mouse button – hold to engage TURBO BOOST!

(Warning: Turbo boost drains fuel 4x faster than normal. Also, watch out for those pesky sim borders. They’re not friendly to fast-moving vehicles.)

Changing Vehicle Modes

WATER to SUBMARINE: Set throttle at least 20%, push forward on stick (up arrow).
SUBMARINE to WATER: Set throttle at about 20%. When Stingray is fully surfaced, pull back once quickly on stick (down arrow).
WATER to PLANE: Increase speed to almost 20kts, pull back on stick (down arrow).
GROUND to PLANE: Increase speed to almost 20kts, pull back on stick (down arrow).
GROUND to WATER: Drive slowly into the water.
AIR to WATER: Slowly approach the water at a shallow angle (no steeper AOA than -4) and let the plane settle on the surface. Throttle to zero.
AIR to GROUND: Extend gear, throttle to 50%, level the nose. Close to the runway, reduce to 40% and allow the plane to settle to the ground. Reduce thrust to zero.
AIR to SUBMARINE: Dive into the water at an AOA steeper than -5 deg.
SUBMARINE to AIR: Set thrust above 70% and aim Stingray steeply at surface.

Choosing a Flight Model

The Stingray has three flight models to choose from. With each one, the plane handles differently.

Say MENU, click “Handling…”, and choose one of the flight models:

Touring – Easy, slow, good for novice pilots.
Stunts – Maneuverable, medium speed. Good for intermediate and advanced pilots.
Custom – User-defined handling. Good for expert pilots.

Select “Custom” to adjust these flight characteristics:

Pitch and Roll: Sensitivity of pitch and roll controls.
Higher numbers are more sensitive, faster to respond.
Lower numbers mean the the turning power increments
more slowly, making it easier to make fine adjustments.
Thrust: Multiplies thrust. Higher is faster.
Vert: Controls the “vertical attraction timescale”.
A higher number means less resistance to rolling.
A lower number means more resistance to rolling.

(Warning: Avoid crossing sim borders at high speed. SL’s servers can’t handle it very well.)

Monitoring Fuel Use

Watch the fuel gauge to monitor fuel use. Your Stingray can operate up to 30 minutes on a full tank.

Where do you get fuel? You can get free cans of Terra Aircraft Fuel at Terra Aeronautics in the northwest corner of Abbotts or visit the SL Marketplace. If you run low on fuel, land your plane, then rez a fuel can. Click the can to refuel. Stock up on free cans, because each can be used only once.

(WARNING: Fuel is drained four times faster than normal while turbo boost is engaged.)

Configuring Your Aircraft

To open the menu, click the MENU button on the HUD or say MENU in chat.

Update…
Check for an update to your Stingray. Updates are free to Stingray owners.
START ENG.
Start the engines.
Handling…
Click this option to fine-tune how your Stingray flies. There are three flight models to choose from of varying difficulty. You can also adjust the pitch and roll manually.
Get HUD
Get the heads-up display (HUD) attachment. Wear this item on your “HUD Bottom” attachment point to get a graphical display of altitude, speed, and more.
Help
Get a help notecard.
Camera…
Choose from several camera views while flying.
Paint…
Let’s you change the color of your Stingray.
Lock…
Choose who has access to your Stingray. Choose owner-only, group-only, or anyone.
Alt +/-
Adjust your altitude up/down by 50 meters. This is good for getting yourself unstuck.
Hovertext
Turns on/off the hovertext info display while the plane is running.

Command List

C
Open/close the canopy.
CAM <number>
Choose a camera angle. Values are 0 to 7. Example: say CAM 5 for a top-down view. Say CAM 0 for a fixed-point camera.
DECAL <uuid>
Apply a square texture as a decal using a texture UUID. To get a UUID, right-click the texture in Inventory and choose Copy UUID.
EJECT
Eject from your aircraft. Aircraft will self-delete after several seconds.
EJECT PASS
Eject the passenger from your aircraft.
LOCK <mode>
Choose you can fly your aircraft, where “mode” is ANYONE, GROUP, or OWNER. Example: say LOCK GROUP to allow only group members to fly your plane.
MENU
Open the popup options menu.
PARK
Turns off the engine and locks the plane in place, regardless of where it is.
PAINT
Open the paint menu.
PAINT <color name>
Apply a color to the entire aircraft. Must be one of the colors listed in the Paint menu.
PAINT WINGS <color name>
Apply a color to the wings, tail, and landing gear.
PAINT FUSELAGE <color name>
Apply a color to the fuselage.
START and STOP
Start and stop the engine.
TEXTURE H <uuid>
Apply a texture to the hull. The templates are at www.cubeyterra.com/support.
TEXTURE M <uuid>
Apply a texture to the main portion of the fuselage (the top prim).
TEXTURE E <uuid>
Apply a texture to the engine intake.
TEXTURE W <uuid>
Apply a texture to the wings.
TEXTURE D <uuid>
Apply a texture to the detail, including: tail fins, engine cowls, and pontoons.
W
Manually extend/retract wings.

Painting Your Aircraft

You can use the Paint menu to add color to the Stingray’s base texture. If you’re familiar with Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro, you can create your own custom plane textures.

Choosing a scheme

Say PAINT in chat to open the Paint menu.
Use the “<- Scheme” and “Scheme ->” buttons to browse the schemes.

Choosing a colour

Say PAINT in chat to open the Paint menu.
Choose a part to paint: the fuselage, the wings, or both.
Use the “<-Clr” and “Clr->” buttons to browse the colors.
Use the “<-Decal” and “Decal->” buttons to browse the decals.
Use the “Matte”/”Shiny” button to choose a paint finish.

NOTE: Colors are applied additively to the base texture, so if the base texture includes red, for example, and you color your plane blue, the red areas of the texture may appear black.

Applying custom textures

Use the TEXTURE command to add your own textures to the paint menu under the scheme named “Custom”. The Custom paint scheme is blank until you add textures to it.

Download the Stingray texture template package from www.cavers.ca/second-life. File format is .PSD, which can be opened in most graphics applications, like Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, or Gimp.
Modify the five textures: fuselage, wings, nose/gear, horizontal stabilizer, and vertical stabilizer.
Save as an image format that SL can upload, like TGA, and upload them to SL (File > Upload Image).
Use the TEXTURE chat command to apply each of the five textures to the plane:
Hull, say: TEXTURE H <uuid>
Main fuselage (top), say: TEXTURE M <uuid>
Engine intake, say: TEXTURE E <uuid>
Wings, say: TEXTURE W <uuid>
Detail pieces (tail, engine cowls, pontoons), say: TEXTURE D <uuid>

The UUID is the unique texture key. To get it, right-click your texture in Inventory and choose Copy UUID. In the chat bar, press CTRL V to paste it.

For more info about this aircraft, please contact Cubey Terra.

I would also like to thank everyone who helped test this aircraft:
Reitsuki Kojima, Kamatz Kuhr, Arrekusu Muromachi, Gigan Seraph, Millie Thompson, BeauZeau Zhao.

The Terra Stingray is inspired by a design concept by Reitsuki Kojima.